


to be found

by allonsytastic



Series: Whouffaldi Week 2017 [7]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Meddling TARDIS, Tumblr Prompt, WhouffaldiWeek2017
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 14:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10538427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allonsytastic/pseuds/allonsytastic
Summary: Based on the last prompt of Whouffaldi Week 2017 -The Great Outdoors





	

The Doctor likes to consider himself a man of mystery and every now and then, Clara lets him indulge his enigmatic streak. For today's trip, he's blindfolded her, leading them through some unknown _(possibly alien)_ territory towards an equally unknown destination. Squeezing her hand ever so slightly, he's navigating them through the terrain, ensuring that Clara doesn't walk into any of the local fauna and _almost_ making a good job of it. _(She reckons she can handle a few minor tears in her new pair of jeans in exchange for whatever it is the Doctor is getting all excited about.)_

When they finally reach their destination and he removes the blindfold, the Doctor seems quite pleased with himself - obviously expecting Clara to recognize wherever it is he's brought them.

 

_"It's a park."_ Lacking further information, Clara fails to grasp the cause for the Doctor's excitement.

_"Oh but not just any park! This is the exact spot where Isaac Newton will be inspired to formulate one of the most fundamental physical laws upon which you lot operate."_

_"Doctor, are we going to watch a guy get hit in the head by an apple?"_

_"Nah, that's just an urban legend."_

_"So I'm not about to find out that you unintentionally advanced the human race's understanding of gravity by accidentally throwing an apple at an innocent bystander? I just want to make sure, because that sort of thing **has** happened with you before."_

_"What? Nonsense. When have I ever interfered with humanity's scientific advancement?"_

_"Do you want an alphabetical or a chronological list?"_

_"Alright, alright, I **may** have - once or twice - **inadvertently**... "_

 

He is cut off in the middle of his sentence as a pterodactyl-esque alien with three wings passes over them, elegantly gliding across the sky and vanishing over the treetops.

_"Hang on, that's not right. That's a Hotari. They aren't due to take over earth until at least 800 years from now."_

_"What?!"_

_"Nothing. Forget I said that."_

_"Doctor, is this going to be like that one time when you told me we'd go meet Leonardo DaVinci and we ended up on the set of 'Titanic'?... Doctor?"_

 

The Doctor doesn't respond, focused instead on scrutinizing their surroundings - furrowing his brow and squinting as he examines one of the leaves on a nearby tree. Seemingly irritated with the result of his investigation, he whips out his sonic screwdriver and points it up at the sky, the faint whirring of the device breaking the eerie silence that has suddenly descended around them.

_"What is it? What are you scanning for?"_

_"It's weird. I'm picking up a signal from the TARDIS, but she's not making any sense... It's like she's been keeping up a sort of one-directional perception filter around us, creating the illusion of terrestrial surroundings ever since we landed. - Clara, I don't think we're on earth at all. I think that Hotari was the first sign of the perception filter being shut down."_

_"So the TARDIS tricked us into coming here? Why would she do that? And why would she let us walk all that way through the periphery instead of just setting us down right here in the first place?"_

_"I don't know... and I haven't quite figured out where exactly **'here'** is either... but it won't take much longer until the filter is entirely shut off."_

While the Doctor keeps scanning their environment for clues, Clara sets out to investigate the plant life in their immediate vicinity. The bushes really do look incredibly lifelike and yet, as she approaches them - holdinig out her hand so she almost touches one of the branches - there is a tangible flicker in the air, like an electrostatic charge making her hair stand on end. As the seconds pass on, the sensation intensifies until the illusion finally shatters as the TARDIS completes the shutdown of the perception filter.

The park is gone.


End file.
